


Knowing His Place

by cinderashessoot



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Abuse, M/M, Mental Abuse, not so much a relationship as a vauge asserition of dominance, suggested mind control, vauge threatening
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2019-03-19 13:44:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13705662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderashessoot/pseuds/cinderashessoot
Summary: Jon is drawn back to work but not quite sure he wants to be there. Elias knows he needs to be.





	Knowing His Place

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this before the events of episode 92 and then 92 happened and I was like >.> I'm so wrong but I'mma post it anyway.

Jon shivered with his whole body as he walked back into the institute, people greeting him with polite nods and welcoming him back as they went about their work day. As if he hadn't been hiding out for weeks, the fear of a murder charge hanging over his head as a police woman with full command over her investigation sought to pin a murder on him, his boss sought to bring him back within his control, and he himself fought to understand the world that he was bound to.

He forced that down and held his head higher, pushing calmness through himself and refusing to feel....no to show weakness to his...enemy? Boss? Master...

"Ah Johnathan welcome back. I know I gave you the week but I can't lie, I'm happier you decided to come sooner rather than later." Elias' smooth voice came from behind him as he was about to cross the threshold that separated the part of the institute that the public could access from the archives.

Jon stopped dead in his tracks and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to remind himself that he had been told he would be safe within these walls. That did nothing to help him with the fear he felt as he turned around to face the man who had beaten to death someone that Jon had spent his whole life thinking was a monster only to find out that he was merely a tool for much greater evils.

"Elias. Good morning." His tone was curt and clipped. He wanted to say more, to ramble on and to show Elias that he had not gotten under his skin.

But he had, and he knew it, and anything Jon did now would only serve to prove just how much the other man terrified him.

"Let me walk you to your office." Elias handed off the file he had been carrying to the archival assistant that he had walked up with. Jon was sure that the young woman worked in the artifact department but he wanted nothing more than to scream at her to get out of here. She reminded him of Sasha...

Elias swept around him and grabbed at one of the double doors, pulling it open and waiting patiently for Jon to cross the threshold. Jon couldn't help himself as he was pulled back into the present. He felt as if his hearing was straining just that much harder as he tried to listen for the sound of anyone else within the archives. He knew he had little choice in the matter, he would do as he was told, but he would also rather other people be around him....and Elias.

"Come now Jon. It wouldn't matter if they were." Elias reached out for him as he passed through the door way, the door gliding closed behind them as his hand settled on the small of Jon's back. "If I was going to hurt you I would do it whether they were watching or not." The words slipped from his tongue with the same tone that one might use to suggest a bouquet to a young man who was about to propose to his girlfriend, light and hopeful. The disconnect between tone and context cause Jon to stop mid stride and he looked over at Elias, hand raised to the level of his own chest but unsure why. Was he going to shove the other man away? Run? Attempt to beat him to death with his own fists?

"Why am I here?" He asked instead.

"You are The Archivist." Elias said, his hand now firmly pressing into the small of the other man's back, forcing him to start walking again. Elias wanted him in his office. Jon didn't know why but he certainly wasn't in a rush to get there.

"Yes, you have said that but what does it mean?" Jon was instinctively matching his strides to the older man's against his will now, falling into step along side him, his office drawing ever closer. They passed a few people along the way and Elias nodded or answered the questions that were directed at him but he never stopped their trek.

"Nothing more and nothing less than it sounds." Frustration was starting to build up within Jon and as they were now within sight of his office he stopped again and this time took a step to the side and back, pulling himself away from Elias' hand.

"You promised if I came back there would be answers." Jon said, meeting the other man's gaze and not flinching. He was too angry to be cornered and corralled. Elias looked him over, sizing him up, taking in  _his_  Archivist and choosing the best way to deal with him.

"I promised you safety." He took his own step backwards so that he was once again in line with Jon, sticking his hands in his pockets.

"I promised you security, that if you did as you were told you would come out on the other side of this alive and with a tale to record." Jon did not see the hand that struck him coming but he felt the sting of the slap that Elias delivered to his face as he crumpled to the floor, hand coming up to touch the skin that was rapidly reddening.

"Eli-." Elias took another step forward and Jon briefly wondered if he was going to kick him.

"But I told you that day when I visited you in that flat...that tiny little flat where you thought you could hide from me and puzzle this all out on your own... I said that you would only have those things if you were good."

This moment was so strange for Jon. The Elias that he had always known was standing before him, not a single hint of violence about him. But this man had killed his last archivist, had beaten to death a man, had just struck Jon himself. And it didn't even seem to phase him. Would nothing crack his facade?

"I-."

"No Jon. Nothing will crack my facade because this is not a facade. I am what this world has made me Jonathan." He took another step towards the man sitting on the floor and continued to stare down at him. "Jude told you, we serve something greater than you can imagine Jon and while I would rather simply watch and gather information, there are times...rare as they may be, when action must be taken."

"I don't understand your actions." Jonathan spit at him and Elias knelt down, bending his knees and pulling his hands out of his pockets.

"Yes. I imagine you don't. Is that why it's taking you so long to fall into line?"

Someone walked past them and Jon's eyes darted to them but the person seemed to not see him at all as he continued down the hallway. "Don't worry. I would never allow someone to see you like this. Small, crumpled, scared." He reached forward, placing a hand on top of Jon's head, working his fingers into the hair and holding onto him as the younger man flinched backwards noticeably.

"You really can do whatever you want." Jon said as his mind stopped going a million kilometers a minute and just accepted the truth of the situation. He sank fully against the wall, processing the raw nature of the moment in it's entirety.

"Well. Within reason. Being good has it's perks." Elias stood back up and held out a hand to Jon as he felt him go slack, dragging him to his feet and towards the room that he had so long ago thought simply a space in which he did his job. Elias maintained contact with him the whole way to his desk chair, settling him down in it and allowing him to lean forward and place his head on his arms, which were crossed on top of the wood. "There there. No use in fighting it you see? It feels good to be home now doesn't it?"

And Jon couldn't deny it to himself, for all his reservations, for all his desire to fight this and be his own man beholden only to himself, the simply feeling of being back in his office at his desk with a statement waiting to be recorded felt good. Even Elias' presence, scary though it was, felt nice and familiar, mixing in nicely with the welcoming atmosphere. The archives wanted him here as much as he wanted to be here.

Elias' voice cut through his musings again as his hand went from gently petting Jon's hair to sliding down to the nape of his neck, fingers curling around it to draw the other man back up into a sitting position.

"Your master has wanted you here ever since the first day you stepped through those doors Jon. And I won't let you disappoint it." Elias' arm came forward, allowing his fingers to extend even farther forward until his palm was covering Jon's adam apple and his fingers were firmly sunk into the flesh, lightly restricting air flow but also forcing him to look at the file on his desk, the tape recorder, and above all, not at Elias. The only way he knew the other man was there was because of his obvious hold on him, it was just as Elias wanted.

"We will make it through the Unknowing Jon. You will see it and you will survive it. And I will do anything to make sure that you do not disappoint me or or The Eye. I have tried to be gentle, but it seems that you need a much firmer touch. And just as your grandmother found a way to bring you into line so shall I." He tightened his hold on Jon's throat, forcing the man to tilt backwards so that he could press a kiss upon his forehead before letting go entirely.

"I will do whatever it takes to bring you into line."

**Author's Note:**

> I ship this relationship but right now I'm having a hard time seeing it as anything other than Elias being charmingly threatening.


End file.
